There are some films that are often debated on whether they are pure Christmas films. Is Die Hard (1988) a Christmas film? Is The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993) a Halloween film or more suited for those Christmas nights? In the case of today’s film, Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence (1983), I am not sure there is much argument to suggest it is a Christmas film. It barely takes place around Christmas time, and there is no real sentimental value given to the holiday. But it literally has Christmas in the title, so I am taking that as it absolutely is a Christmas film, what are you going to do about it? The film focuses on four men in a Japanese prisoner of war camp towards the end of the second world war, Captain Yanoi (Ryuichi Sakamoto) and Sergeant Hara (Takeshi Kitano) on the Japanese side, Lieutenant John Lawrence (Tom Conti) and Jack Celliers (David Bowie) on the British. The film tells the story of culture clash, friendship across cultures, and hope for tolerance despite being on opposing sides.
That film synopsis may seem a little loose, but that is because there isn’t an exact plot to this film, not in the more general sense anyway. There isn’t a real story of getting from point A to point B, instead being more just a growing tension over violence overflowing in a camp where tensions run high between two contrasting cultures, and our main characters caught in the middle of this. As a result of this, a lot of the film relies on the performance of its actors being engaging and sympathetic, and everyone throughout is great. Kitano manages to capture being goofy and likeable, as well as being slightly unhinged and unpredictable brilliantly, and Sakamoto creates a character where you can see him slowly losing his mind and becoming more erratic really well. David Bowie is, of course, captivating as always, although speaking of him I should take the time to mention the flashbacks. I will talk about it now as David Bowie plays a 17-year-old version of his character which is funny in itself, but I also want to bring it up as I feel the film suffers because of these flashbacks. They are introduced late into the film and just stop the film dead in my opinion. They just don’t feel important. Anyway, back to the performances and the MVP of the film is Tom Conti as the titular Lawrence. He runs the gamut of emotion and captures each one brilliantly, being extremely sympathetic and bridging the gap between cultures not only for the characters but for the audience. I think he is superb.
On top of these great performances, the film also looks great with brilliant cinematography throughout. The film implements these excellent Stanley Kubrick-esque symmetrical shots, where a character is placed directly in the middle of the frame as the focus, with the rest of the frame being symmetrically matched wonderfully. I am not entirely sure why (probably because of my love of Kubrick films) but I have always loved these kinds of shots and this film is full of them, so I am all over it. The film really comes into its own during its night-time scenes. It doesn’t do anything anymore interesting with its shot choice than it does during the day scenes, but it adds this really beautiful looking blue monochrome over the whole frame which just gives the film this great look. I don’t know why I liked it so much, but it really worked for me. And I also need to mention the music in the film because it is great. The main theme is a proper earworm, and it will absolutely get stuck in your head, which isn’t always necessarily the sign of a great score but in this case, it is great. The whole score is compromised of these synth tones, while also being reminiscent of more traditional Japanese sounding music. This adds brilliantly to this atmosphere of the cultural divide and hopes for finding common ground in a really subtle way while also just being a great score in and of itself.
So, this may not strictly be a Christmas film, but it is a very good one. It is full of great performances from the whole cast, brilliant cinematography, and a score that is superb and is well worth a listen on its own. I would definitely recommend it, even if you don’t necessarily need to see it during the Christmas period. With that being said, the very final line of the film is Sergeant Hara saying, ‘Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence’ and if that doesn’t warrant it a place in the catalogue of Christmas films then I’m not sure what would.
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